RE:POTUS - Summary of Presidential Impeachment

Impeachment of the President of the United States is the only way to remove a president from office outside of death, resignation, or rejection by the American people in an election. Politicians say they do not want to go down the road of impeachment. Impeachment is part of the checks and balances within the Constitution. In the 224 years under the Constitution, the House of Representatives, the chamber with the power to impeach, has only written articles of impeachment on three different occasions. Of those three instances only two of those three were actually impeached, however they survived the trial in the Senate so they were not removed from office. To impeach a president, the House of Representatives in session determines the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” part of the definition of impeachment in the Constitution.

Seventy-nine years into the government under the Constitution, the House impeached a president for the first time. Andrew Johnson, from Tennessee, was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union after eleven southern States seceded from the Union from 1860-61. His loyalty was repaid with a spot on the bottom of the presidential ticket in the election of 1864. The Union Party of Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Andrew Johnson won the election. Just a little over a month into Lincoln’s second term, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. Lincoln died the next morning elevating the loyal southern Democratic vice president to the highest office in the land.

Vice President Andrew Johnson taking the presidential oath of office on April 15, 1865, after President Abraham Lincoln's death from an assassin's bullet.

President Johnson would continue, to the best of his ability, the plan for Reconstruction of the Union as Lincoln had intended. By 1868, the Radical Republicans in the Congress were not happy with the President and his handling of Reconstruction. The legislative branch sought to curb Johnson’s executive power. The first attempt to curb Johnson’s power came in the form of the Tenure of Office Act. The act required the approval of the Senate for the President to fire anyone in a position the Senate gave their consent to. Johnson disagreed with the law and knew its true meaning, an attempt to weaken the executive. Johnson decided to test the new law by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, without the consent of the Congress.

The House wrote up eleven articles of impeachment, eight having to do with Johnson’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson knew it was more political than rational. In the Senate, Johnson survived the impeachment by a single vote on three of the articles of impeachment. Since Johnson survived three of the articles, the Senate adjourned without further consideration of the remaining eight articles. In the end, Johnson quietly finished out the remainder of the term as the Congress took control of rebuilding the Union. His impeachment was a blow to presidential power and an increase in legislative authority that would dominate the government for the next twenty years.

The Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson in the U.S. Senate from March to May 1868.

The Radical Republicans in the Congress wanted to be in charge of Reconstruction and were not happy with Johnson and his handling of Reconstruction and his leniency toward ex-Confederates. They created a political situation or confrontation via the Tenure of Office Act, seizing on Johnson’s violation of the law as means for removal from office.

It would be 106 years until the House of Representatives would write articles of impeachment for another president, Richard Nixon. What would seem like a “third-rate burglary” would turn into a Constitutional crisis. In 1972, operatives connected to the White House broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate hotel. Nixon knew of the break-in and began a cover up which would bring down his presidency.

President Richard Nixon released 1,254 pages of edited transcripts of 20 audio tapes on April 30, 1974, to avoid handing over subpoenaed tapes to the House Judiciary Committee. It did not help.

By the summer of 1974 impeachment of the president was being considered by the House. That summer the “smoking gun,” an audio tape implicating Nixon’s involvement, was discovered. The House Judiciary committee wrote up three articles of impeachment and voted on the articles. The three articles consisted of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. While the Congress of the United States was a Democratic majority, Nixon was advised by leading Republicans in the Senate, headed by Barry Goldwater of Arizona, that he would not survive a trial in the Senate. Republican National Committee Chairman George Herbert Walker Bush suggested the same. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, at noon before the articles of impeachment could be voted on by the entire House.

In this instance, the House Judiciary committee used the political solution of impeachment to uphold the Constitution, whereas the House of the late 1860s used impeachment as a weapon in a political fight between an embattled president and Congress. Investigation into another president would begin twenty years after Nixon’s resignation.

Kenneth Starr headed the independent council’s office and began the investigation of potential illegal dealings done by the Clintons, such as the Whitewater land development. In 1998, Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, gave a false affidavit about her relationship with President William Jefferson Clinton in the case involving Paula Jones. Clinton also lied under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. This led Starr to begin an investigation into the Lewinsky allegations, stemming from the Jones case. Lewinsky’s stained blue dress became the “smoking gun” in this instance.

The House Judiciary voted on four articles of impeachment, three for lying under oath and one for obstruction of justice. The full House passed two articles of impeachment; both had to do with lying under oath. The president survived the trial in the Senate and completed the remaining years of his second term as popular as ever.

First Lady Hillary Clinton watches as President Bill Clinton addresses his impeachment by the House of Representatives to the press and the nation on December 19, 1998.

Johnson and Clinton were both impeached because of those that ran the House of Representatives did not like the Chief Executive. The House sought to remove from office someone they did not agree with or get along with. The attempt to impeach Nixon was justifiable, an effort to uphold the Constitution, however he resigned before a full House vote of impeachment could take place. Nixon would not have survived a trial in the Senate. The three terms of Congress which made up George W. Bush’s first six years of the presidency did not contemplate impeachment. The Republicans who led the Congress did not see the need to investigate the president. When the Democratic Party took control of the House of Representatives in 2007, an assurance of no impeachment was given in the run up to the 2006 mid-term elections. Comparing the possible impeachable offenses made by Bush and his administration to his impeached or would be impeached predecessors leads to the realization that the sitting members of the House of Representatives do determine what is a “high crime and misdemeanor.”

Pointless Presidential Pfacts #2 - "The Ripples in the Presidency"

The U.S. Presidency under the current Constitution has existed since George Washington took the oath on April 30, 1789. Every four years the people are given the chance to elect a new leader to administer the executive branch and represent the nation. Each man connected by his predecessor can unite the present to the past. But there are moments when the presidency is altered, not by the people but by removal from office through impeachment (which has yet to happen, although we have come close), resignation, and death, either natural or by an assassin.

For 52 years, 14 presidential elections, and 9 presidents, elections occurred keeping or changing the occupant in (the time-before-)the-Oval-Office, from Washington to William Henry Harrison. That all came crashing down on April 4, 1841, one month after Harrison took the oath of office. The Constitution was hardly clear on the matter of succession with words like “the same shall devolve on the Vice President.” Was the vice president a temporary and acting-president until a new election as some saw it? Vice President John Tyler saw it differently and established the precedent of the vice president assuming the duties of the office of president by taking the oath. His Accidency, a nickname given by his opponents, but to every one else he was Mr. President. The longest uninterrupted period for the office of the presidency was from Washington to Harrison, but it would be followed by the shortest period starting with President Tyler.

No caption needed.

It would only be 9 years, 2 presidential elections, and 3 presidents until another death took a president. President Zachary Taylor died due to some kind of gastro problem July 9, 1850. Following the precedent established by Tyler, Millard Fillmore took the oath of office becoming the 13th president. The next length of time, Fillmore to Abraham Lincoln, would help establish the average of 22 years between non-election changes in the presidency.

President Zachary Taylor on his death bed in July of 1850.

John Wilkes Booth’s bullet would put an end to 15 years and four presidents from Fillmore to Lincoln. The first assassination would be followed by two more. Andrew Johnson would start 16 undisturbed years until three presidents later James Garfield was killed by Charles Guiteau, with Johnson’s acquittal saving him from being the shortest disruption and the first to be removed by impeachment. Chester Arthur all the way through to William McKinley’s assassination by Leon Czolgosz would be 20 years with 5 presidents and just 4 men serving.

The first 3 Dead Presidential Assassins: John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, and Leon Czolgosz.

The Roosevelt cousins bookend the next two undisturbed periods. Theodore Roosevelt assumed the presidency after McKinley and even won an election in his own right in 1904, something no 19th Century vice president following in Tyler’s footsteps was able to accomplish, also none of them were given an opportunity by a political party to even try, except for Fillmore four years later when the Know-Nothings nominated him to run for the presidency in 1856 coming in 3rd with Electoral College votes. Tyler could have run as an independent in 1844 but reconsidered. So for 22 years and just four presidents, Roosevelt to Warren Harding, the presidency was uninterrupted. Harding’s death ended this run, a mid-point between the Roosevelt cousins. Calvin Coolidge succeeded Harding becoming the 30th president. From Coolidge to Franklin Roosevelt, 22 years would also pass until FDR’s death ended the period with only 3 presidents.

Vice President Harry S. Truman is sworn in as the 33rd POTUS following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

Harry Truman through to John Kennedy would be a period of 18 years, but only 3 presidents with Kennedy’s assassination, the last of a form of death while in office. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon span the next 11 years ending with Nixon’s resignation, the first and only of a president. This was the second shortest period before a disruption and with the next period nicely bookends with the first two periods.

Vice President Gerald Ford is sworn in as the 38th POTUS following the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974.

Since Gerald Ford took over the presidency in 1974 as the 38th president the presidency has not been disrupted making the 36 years since 1974 the longest period second only to the Washington to Harrison 9 period. Both the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan and the impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton could have disrupted the presidency, but thankfully they did not and just 16 years to beat the streak of 1789 to 1841.

The Summary of Presidential Impeachment

Impeachment of the President of the United States is the only way to remove a president from office outside of death, resignation, or rejection by the American people in an election. Politicians say they do not want to go down the road of impeachment. Impeachment is part of the checks and balances within the Constitution. In the 219 years under the Constitution, the House of Representatives, the chamber with the power to impeach, has only written articles of impeachment on three different occasions. Of those three instances only two of those three were actually impeached, however they survived the trial in the Senate so they were not removed from office. To impeach a president, the House of Representatives in session determines the meaning of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” part of the definition of impeachment in the Constitution.

Seventy-nine years into the government under the Constitution, the House impeached a president for the first time. Andrew Johnson, from Tennessee, was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union after eleven southern states seceded from the Union from 1860-61. His loyalty was repaid with a spot on the bottom of the presidential ticket in the election of 1864. The Union Party of Republican Abraham Lincoln and Democrat Andrew Johnson won the election. Almost a month into Lincoln’s second term, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth while watching “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater. Lincoln died the next morning elevating the loyal southern Democrat to the highest office in the land.

Vice President Andrew Johnson taking the presidential oath of office on April 15, 1865, after President Abraham Lincoln's death from an assassin's bullet.

President Johnson would continue, to the best of his ability, the plan for Reconstruction of the South as Lincoln had intended. By 1868, the Radical Republicans in the Congress were not happy with the President and his handling of Reconstruction. The legislative branch sought to curb Johnson’s executive power. The first attempt to curb Johnson’s power came in the form of the Tenure of Office Act. The act required the approval of the Senate for the President to fire anyone in a position the Senate gave their consent to. Johnson disagreed with the law and knew its true meaning, an attempt to weaken the executive. Johnson decided to test the new law by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, without the consent of the Congress.

The House wrote up eleven articles of impeachment, eight having to do with Johnson’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson knew it was more political than rational. In the Senate, Johnson survived the impeachment by a single vote on three of the articles of impeachment. Since Johnson survived three of the articles, the Senate adjourned without further consideration of the remaining eight articles. In the end, Johnson quietly finished out the remainder of the term as the Congress took control of rebuilding the Union. His impeachment was a blow to presidential power and an increase in legislative authority that would dominate the government for the next twenty years.

The Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson in the U.S. Senate from March to May 1868.

The Radical Republicans in the Congress wanted to be in charge of Reconstruction and were not happy with Johnson and his handling of Reconstruction and his leniency toward ex-Confederates. They created a political situation or confrontation via the Tenure of Office Act, seizing on Johnson’s violation of the law as means for removal from office.

It would be 106 years until the House of Representatives would write articles of impeachment for another president, Richard Nixon. What would seem like a “third-rate burglary” would turn into a Constitutional crisis. In 1972, operatives connected to the White House broke into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters at the Watergate hotel. Nixon knew of the break-in and began a cover up which would bring down his presidency.

President Richard Nixon released 1,254 pages of edited transcripts of 20 audio tapes on April 30, 1974, to avoid handing over subpoenaed tapes to the House Judiciary Committee. It did not help.

By the summer of 1974 impeachment of the president was being considered by the House. That summer the “smoking gun,” an audio tape implicating Nixon’s involvement, was discovered. The House Judiciary committee wrote up three articles of impeachment and voted on the articles. The three articles consisted of obstruction of justice, abuse of power, and contempt of Congress. While the Congress of the United States was a Democratic majority, Nixon was advised by leading Republicans in the Senate, headed by Barry Goldwater of Arizona, that he would not survive a trial in the Senate. Republican National Committee Chairman George Herbert Walker Bush suggested the same. Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, at noon before the articles of impeachment could be voted on by the entire House.

In this instance, the House Judiciary committee used the political solution of impeachment to uphold the Constitution, whereas the House of the late 1860s used impeachment as a weapon in a political fight between an embattled president and Congress. Investigation into another president would begin twenty years after Nixon’s resignation.

Kenneth Starr headed the independent council’s office and began the investigation of potential illegal dealings done by the Clintons, such as the Whitewater land development. In 1998, Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern, gave a false affidavit about her relationship with President William Jefferson Clinton in the case involving Paula Jones. Clinton also lied under oath about his relationship with Lewinsky. This led Starr to begin an investigation into the Lewinsky allegations, stemming from the Jones case. Lewinsky’s stained blue dress became the “smoking gun” in this instance.

The House Judiciary voted on four articles of impeachment, three for lying under oath and one for obstruction of justice. The full House passed two articles of impeachment; both had to do with lying under oath. The president survived the trial in the Senate and completed the remaining years of his second term as popular as ever.

First Lady Hillary Clinton watches as President Bill Clinton addresses his impeachment by the House of Representatives to the press and the nation on December 19, 1998.

Johnson and Clinton were both impeached because of those that ran the House of Representatives did not like the Chief Executive. The House sought to remove from office someone they did not agree with or get along with. The attempt to impeach Nixon was justifiable, an effort to uphold the Constitution, however he resigned before a full House vote of impeachment could take place. Nixon would not have survived a trial in the Senate. The three terms of Congress which made up George W. Bush’s first six years of the presidency did not contemplate impeachment. The Republicans who led the Congress did not see the need to investigate the president. When the Democratic Party took control of the House of Representatives in 2007, an assurance of no impeachment was given in the run up to the 2006 mid-term elections. Comparing the possible impeachable offenses made by Bush and his administration to his impeached or would be impeached predecessors leads to the realization that the sitting members of the House of Representatives do determine what is a “high crime and misdemeanor.”

the majority doesn't matter

"So? What is your point? Is the fact the majority believes something make it so?"

the majority wasn't for the impeachment of president clinton. so lying under oath about an extramarital affair is enough to investigate and the impeach a president, even if the majority is against impeachment. the house of representatives in 1998 was controlled by republicans and which ever party controls the house of representatives determines what is an impeachable offense. even if the majority of the citizens were against impeachment the gop control house went with impeachment.

this house is controlled by the democratic party and they've determined that no impeachable offensives have occurred and even having a majority of its citizens favor investigations the democratic party isn't able to find impeachable offensives.

which is weird bc if they're too stupid and can't find an impeachable offense all they have to do is look at history and find that in 1974 one of the two articles of impeachment that was written up and voted on against nixon (the house judiciary voted on 2 articles, but nixon resigned before the full house could vote) was for wire tapping. even though the nixon impeachment was under a democratic house, it was bipartisan. (by august 6th and 7th nixon had lost the senate and the rnc chair [bush's dad]).

if the majority believes something in regard to their leaders of their country possibly abusing their power then yeah. this blames the democratic party as well...they are in the position to define what is impeachable and was is not. all the accusations about the clintons cost about $60 to $70 million dollars and it was determined that no wrong doing was found. i'm not saying lets spend that much money on investigating this administration, but if the majority already believes that there is possible wrong doing and to such an extreme then all the house judiciary needs to do is investigate to either deny or confirm. we can't let future historians determine or debate whether or not there was wrong doing. sure we all know what was on monica's blue dress, but we won't know the truth about all the secrets and wrong doing done by this administration. no future president, of either or any party, should ever be impeached if this administration is not investigated. o wait i forgot it's the house of representatives that is in power that determines what is impeachment...i'm sure the gop will be in power again in the house at some point...i wonder what they'll impeach for then.

the I Word - impeachment

I sometimes wonder if the Constitution is really followed or is it cherry-picked like intelligence for a war? Democrats before the election of 2006 wanted the voters to know they were not going to be impeaching the Bush Administration. This is not a pro-impeachment or anti-Bush rant. This is a question historians will ponder in the future when the topic of presidential impeachments is discussed.

If someone is today is teaching a government or civics class and the topic of impeachment comes up the teacher would explain what impeachment is. The House of Representatives is the chamber of Congress that can write Articles of Impeachment indicted the president of "a high crime or misdemeanor." The Senate then sits as the jury in the trial to impeach the president, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding as judge. Members of the House Judiciary Committee prosecute the president's defense counsel. The Senate votes to either convict to remove the president from office or acquit him of the crime.

The teacher then explains that only two presidents have been impeached, Andrew Johnson and William Jefferson Clinton. A teacher would just give the general facts and skip any of the historical context and analysis. Neither were convicted, but both were targets of the political opposition.

Johnson survived impeachment by one vote. The Radical Republicans running the Congress wanted to take over the Reconstruction of the South from Johnson, who tried his best to live up to President Lincoln's goal in the South's Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans created a situation threating executive power. Johnson had violated the Tenure of Office Act which said that the president could not fire anyone who was confirmed by the Senate without the consent of the Senate. President Johnson rightfully saw this as wrong and fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and replaced him. The House of Representatives found their excuse to impeach him.
Eleven Articles of Impeachment threatened Andrew Johnson's presidency. When three of the Articles of Impeachment could not reach a vote of conviction the remaining eight were tabled and never voted on. The Radical Republicans were able to make a blow at the executive branch and controlled a mismanaged Reconstruction of the South.

Clinton had been investigated by both the Republican led Congress and Kenneth Starr, the Independent Counsel investigating possible wrong doing by the Clintons. In the end, all the money spent investigating the Clintons proved them innocent. President Clinton did however lie under oath about an affair with an intern. Clinton was impeached by the Republican House for perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton was not in as bad a situation as President Johnson was in 1868. Clinton survived the trial in the Senate and finished his remaining 2 years in office as popular as ever.

Teachers need to let their students know that President Richard Nixon was not impeached. The Judiciary committee headed by the majority party, the Democrats, began voting on Articles of Impeachment which included obstruction of justice and illegal wire tapping. President Nixon resigned before the full House of Representatives could vote on any of Articles of Impeachment.

Historians and those explaining impeachment will wonder why George W. Bush was not impeached since he too has done far worse than Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Evidence such as the Downing Street Memo or the White House Memo have shown the president and his administration misleading us into a war of choice for false reasons. If the new Democratic controlled Congress begins investigating the president and finds wrong doing comparable to Nixon, is it okay to impeach?

The politicians say they don't want to take the nation down the road of impeachment. It is the duty of the Congress, the legislative branch, to oversee the executive which had been lacking for the past six years. The Republican Party had a duty to their country first, before party when leading the Congress' support for the president and his war. They did not take that approach accepting, not questioning, the reasons the administration laid out for war in Iraq.

The idea of censure by Senator Feingold is not acceptable. Censuring Clinton seems more appropriate than impeachment when you compare Clinton versus Bush. People in power are more concerned with their next election and fear of backlash from impeachment like what happened to Republicans in 1998 is feared by those in power now. The Democrats need to put the interest of the nation ahead of electoral politics. By investigating the president and the reasons we went to war in Iraq will help history and explain to the families why their sons and daughters fought in this war of choice.

More than likely George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney will end their term at noon on January 20, 2009. An impeachment will not take place and they will go un-investigated. When is it ok to impeach the president? Comparing the wrong doings of Clinton versus Bush must make explaining impeachment very difficult. The Constitution should be upheld and since the executive hasn't been doing its part these past six years, it's time the legislative branch stepped up.